ATHENS, Ohio (April 25, 2007) -- RecycleMania 2007 is officially over and Ohio University finished No. 1 in the Mid-American Conference and second among all Ohio colleges and universities.

But the real winner in RecycleMania is the environment. The 201 colleges and universities recycled a total 41.3 million pounds, or 20,650 tons of recyclables, in the 10-week period of competition.

The total pounds recycled decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 15,583 metric tons of carbon equivalent. This equates to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that is approximately equivalent to: 12,367 passenger cars not driven for one year; 6,507,707 gallons of gasoline; 132,878 barrels of oil; 7,335 household's use of electricity for one year; or 468 acres of forest preserved from deforestation.

Ohio University, which co-founded the competition, ranked first among MAC schools that measured their entire campus recyclables collected between January 28 and April 7.

The winner of the Per Capita Classic competition, which measures cumulative pounds of recyclables per person, was Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. California State University San Marcos was the Grand Champion winner with a cumulative recycling rate of 59.96 percent.

Miami University of Ohio, which only measured part of its campus, ranked 4th in the Per Capita Classic and 15th for overall recyclables collected at 521,830 pounds. The university is a national powerhouse with its in-house collection crews and facilities and its custodial staff that picks up recyclables from inside residence halls.

Ohio University's new recycling collection contract will position the campus to capture a higher percentage of waste, which will make the Bobcats a lot stronger in next year's competition. Ohio University also plans to have composting in place of food and service-ware to compete next year. These are like first round draft choices coming into the mix, but in the form of better recycling collection operations.

Ohio University's overall rankings after 10 weeks:

Per Capita Recycling – 72nd place out of 175 schools at 18.68 pounds per person

Waste Minimization – 27th place out of 66 in overall recycling/trash generation per person at 86.53 pounds